Democracy vs. executive privilege

When in the course of American history did the concept of executive privilege begin? My understanding is that three branches — executive, legislative, and judicial — govern our country. The executive branch of government consists of the President, Vice President and the Cabinet. Cabinet members advise the President on matters of defense, state, economy, finance, transportation, commerce, interior, and health and education, etc. and administer their respective departments.

When, then, did it become necessary for a President to have a parallel set of advisors, usually from his own political party, whose advice often seems to supersede that of the cabinet members? Why must the President’s discussions with these “unofficial cabinet” members be kept secret? It appears that the concept of “kitchen cabinets” evolved primarily to subvert our democratic system of government and avoid the checks and balances that the founders of our government so wisely anticipated.

I found this on a simple search. It seems to be an accurate, straight forward answer.

Executive privilege is the power claimed by the President of the United States and other members of the executive branch to resist certain search warrants and other interventions by the legislative and judicial branches of government. The concept of executive privilege is not mentioned in the United States Constitution, but some consider it to be an element of the separation of powers doctrine, and/or derived from the supremacy of executive branch in its own area of Constitutional activity.

Presidents since George Washington and Thomas Jefferson have argued that each branch of government may operate with some degree of freedom from the control or supervision of the others.[citation needed] The Supreme Court confirmed the legitimacy of this doctrine in United States v. Nixon, but only to the extent of confirming that it can be invoked when the oversight of the executive would impair that branch’s national security concerns.

Historically, the uses of executive privilege underscore the untested nature of the doctrine, since Presidents have generally sidestepped open confrontations with the United States Congress and the courts over the issue by first asserting the privilege, then producing some of the documents requested on an assuredly voluntary basis.

But what I didn’t know was that the first executive privilege was issued in 1796, President George Washington refused to comply with a request by the House of Representatives for documents which were relating to the negotiation of the then-recently adopted Jay Treaty with England.

#2 Comment By Pauly On July 12, 2007 @ 12:50 pm

I found this on a simple search. It seems to be an accurate, straight forward answer.

Executive privilege is the power claimed by the President of the United States and other members of the executive branch to resist certain search warrants and other interventions by the legislative and judicial branches of government. The concept of executive privilege is not mentioned in the United States Constitution, but some consider it to be an element of the separation of powers doctrine, and/or derived from the supremacy of executive branch in its own area of Constitutional activity.

Presidents since George Washington and Thomas Jefferson have argued that each branch of government may operate with some degree of freedom from the control or supervision of the others.[citation needed] The Supreme Court confirmed the legitimacy of this doctrine in United States v. Nixon, but only to the extent of confirming that it can be invoked when the oversight of the executive would impair that branch’s national security concerns.

Historically, the uses of executive privilege underscore the untested nature of the doctrine, since Presidents have generally sidestepped open confrontations with the United States Congress and the courts over the issue by first asserting the privilege, then producing some of the documents requested on an assuredly voluntary basis.

But what I didn’t know was that the first executive privilege was issued in 1796, President George Washington refused to comply with a request by the House of Representatives for documents which were relating to the negotiation of the then-recently adopted Jay Treaty with England.